A Strange Tail
by secretfanficlover
Summary: MermaidAU! Lily Evans is the love of James's life and he will do anything to be with her, even turn into a merman himself. Unfortunately, his friends end up in a situation that is difficult to get out of.


**This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and ****Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or ****trademark infringement is intended. **

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Word Count: 1737

Title: A Strange Tail

Note: AU!Mermaid

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Golden Snitch

[Name] Crissie

[School] Uagadou

[House] Ogyinae

Ollivanders: Kelpie hair: Write about the mermaids in the Black Lake.

Care of Magical Creatures: Giant Squid - write about swimming, water or the lake

* * *

Hogwarts

Assignment 4: First Aid- Task Eleven, tooth preservation kit: Write about an accident that seems minor but has major consequences

Yearly:

Prompt 645 [Quote] "Friends show their love in times of trouble, not in happiness."

– Euripedes

* * *

James was sitting by the black lake when he noticed a woman. Her hair was red and fiery, and when her eyes met his. He knew he was in love. She swam over to him.

"Hi," he said. "I'm James," he introduced himself.

"Lily Evans," the girl replied. Her hands were cold as ice as she held it toward him.

"I don't recognize the name, are you not from here?" James asked her curiously. Surely he would have noticed this beauty had she been sitting with him in the great hall.

"I am, I live here," she replied. James looked puzzled initially because it seemed like she meant the lake.

"Everything you heard about me is true," he added smoothly, he wanted to impress her, she was so lovely she made his heart catch in his throat.

"Silly, I haven't heard anything about you, I don't get out much," Lily said contemplatively.

"But if you're a student, surely you know the Marauders, we are kind of legends?" he attempted again. "Although I haven't seen you before." This comment made her laugh, a noise that sent a bolt right through James.

"A student? Oh, gosh, no. I'm a merperson," she replied, then she lay onto her back, exposing her emerald green-scaled tail.

"Do you talk to people often?" James asked.

"Not really," she admitted, "you seemed lonely." It was clear her heart was as beautiful as her face. She was sweet and fierce. James was going to do anything necessary to be with her. That was what led to an unfortunate state of events...

* * *

"So we are busy with a potion to turn James into a mermaid?" Sirius asked, looking at his boyfriend with a puzzled expression.

"It would appear that way," Remus responded.

"All that he can hook up with a mermaid?" Sirius added. Remus just nodded, focusing on the ingredients. "I think the real question is —why?" Sirius said causing Remus to look up from his notes on how to create the potion and stare at his boyfriend.

"Well, he is our best friend, and we want to help him, don't we?" Remus asked in reply.

"Yeah, but why does he get to do the fun stuff while we are doing the potion?" Sirius whined, he was bored and wanted Remus's attention, and all this work wasn't any fun.

"It's funny how you and James can spend hours on a prank, but this is boring," Remus laughed at his boyfriend. "Come here then, let me help relieve some boredom," he added, gesturing for his boyfriend to come over for a kiss. The potion complete, all they needed to do was put it into the vail, and then James could use it to make a tail, and then he could be with Lily Evans like he wanted to.

Unfortunately, the two didn't see when they knocked into the cauldron holding the potion, and it splashed- right onto Sirius.

"Oh Merlin," Remus exclaimed, noticing it the instant it touched Sirius, but it was already too late, the potion had given him a lavender coloured tail, and he was flopping around on the ground. They needed to get him to water before he dries out too much and dehydrated from lack of water. "My boyfriend is a fish," Remus exclaimed, smacking himself in the head.

How could they have been that careless? They had no idea how to reverse the potion, and they needed to be discreet, it was not like they could go to Madam Pomfrey and ask her to help, they weren't supposed to be brewing the potion in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom in the first place.

Sirius started laughing hysterically until Myrtle decided she had enough and bit out a retort: "would you shut up?"

Remus decided to splash toilet water at Myrtle; which of course went right through her and fell on his boyfriend instead.

"Yuck, Moony!" Sirius exclaimed.

"Sorry," Remus said abashedly. "What are we going to do now?"

"Well, you can get me in the prefect's bathroom tub, and then find the book in the restricted section, using James's cloak, and then meet me there and we go through the options I have of relieving myself of this tail," Sirius said. Myrtle laughed at his misfortune before driving off into the toilet. It was clear she needed to like the boys, at least a little bit; she didn't talk to many people.

"What are the odds that we'll pull this off?" Sirius asked Remus with a crooked smile.

"Practically none," Remus replied.

"Great, let's go." Sirius grinned. Remus shook his head, Sirius took nothing seriously.

Remus found it rather sad that Myrtle was stuck in that state when it came down to it, he would choose to move on rather than be stuck between worlds the way she was now. He got James's cloak, using a levitation spell to carry his boyfriend along to the prefect's bathroom. At least he could lock the door so that nobody was able to get inside and find out what they had done. But they were running out of time, and they needed to finish up before most people would wake up for breakfast. The castle was home to some early risers.

He managed to smuggle Sirius, tail and all, into the bathroom without notice, the rest of the potion had they put into a vial for James, it didn't help wasting it since it worked the way it should. Mermaid Sirius spent his time relaxing in a nice tub of ice-cool water, without any bubbles, his scales needed the pure water to breathe. Ideally, the black lake's water would have been even better, but they didn't have any time to spare for Remus to run down to the lake to get him some water, so he needed to make due.

He was bored without Remus, and it was sometimes hard to believe they were discrete beings and not part of one another. He wondered if James truly loved this Lily the same way he loved Remus because giving up his legs was one thing, but there was more than just legs missing in this equation.

When Remus returned with the book, his boredom was all forgotten, and his face lit up, he couldn't contain his excitement and ended up splashing in the bathtub, luckily the room was soundproof so nobody outside would hear him. It would sound like he was drowning.

"Hey, stop that!" Remus exclaimed. "You're getting me all wet," Remus added, trying to give Sirius a stern look. Sirius tried to look reproachful but failed miserably, and he was always happy to see Remus, no matter what was going on.

Remus took out the book, sitting down beside the edge of the bath and flipping it open. He was looking for an antidote to the potion, to change his boyfriend back to normal. Remus figured that at least if they had a cure, they could give it to James in case James decided to become a human again, there should even be a way of turning Lily into a human, and then both of them could be at Hogwarts. Remus would hate to lose his friend forever, and hoped that he would decide to return eventually. Although he knew that given a choice between his friends and his true love, he would pick Sirius every time, he was just lucky to have his best friend and his boyfriend be the same person.

They flipped through the book, landing on the page they needed. "Oh no," Remus said, spotting it before Sirius did. It—the antidote required unicorn hair; otherwise, they could not complete it. They knew that professor Slughorn often kept them, but he was currently out, due to the Marauder's raiding his ingredients to use for various nefarious activities. The only one that could get a unicorn hair was someone pure of heart…

"Wormtail," both of them said simultaneously. So having filled in their friend, they sent him on a mission into the Forbidden Forest to return with a unicorn hair so that they could find the rest of the ingredients for the antidote.

Before Peter could return, James found them. He shook his head at his friends. "I asked you one small thing, and you guys can't stop snogging long enough to finish it," he said exasperated. Remus had the decency to blush, but Sirius just grinned cheekily.

"Don't hate us cause you ain't us," he said, blowing a kiss from the bathtub. James just sighed.

"So, Peter is getting a unicorn hair?" he asked curiously. It wasn't often they needed to rely on him to solve anything, but they knew they could count on him. Remus nodded, not saying what they all thought. Peter was the only virgin among them, so they needed him to get the unicorn hair, or Sirius would need to get used to not being able to go anywhere.

When Peter returned, everyone let out a sigh of relief. "Oh come on guys, why do you doubt me?" Peter asked. Remus was the one that was the most diplomatic and decided to answer.

"Of course we don't doubt you, Wormtail, we are just all worked up over this, it wouldn't do for us to get into trouble now, would it?" he replied, the other two nodded their agreement. Once they finished the antidote, they cured Sirius, and the rest went into a vial that James would keep around his neck, in case he wanted to come back to them.

He walked to the side of the black lake, the vial of mermaid potion in his hand. The antidote was in a golden chain around his neck; that way, he wouldn't risk losing it at the bottom of the dark lake.

"James, you're back," Lily said, swimming up to the bank of the lake. "What's that?" she asked, pointing at the potion.

"I'm changing into a merperson too so that I can be with you," he admitted. Lily's returning smile was one of the most amazing sights James had ever seen.

"You are doing all that for me?" she asked, breathing out slowly.

"Of course," he replied.

"That is the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for me," she admitted, and she kissed him on the cheek before poured the vial over his legs, transforming into a merperson, and diving into the lake to be with his true love.


End file.
